Accounting Information Systems: The Processes and Controls, 2nd Edition

SUMMARY OF STUDY OBJECTIVES

An overview of an ERP system. An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is a multimodule software system that can integrate all business processes and functions of the entire organization into a single software system using a single database. Each module is intended to collect, process, and store data of a functional area of the organization and to integrate with related processes. The ERP system is the IT infrastructure that has enhanced and enabled e-commerce and e-business. ERP systems and e-business are mutually supporting parts of the organization. ERP systems enhance e-business, and e-business has enhanced the process efficiency of ERP systems. ERP systems contain modules and use an operational database and a data warehouse.

The history of ERP systems. ERP systems can be traced back to software that was developed during the 1960s and 1970s to track inventory in manufacturing companies. The first generation of this software was called materials requirements planning (MRP) software. MRP software evolved into manufacturing resource planning (MRP II) systems. MRP II was much broader and more encompassing than MRP software. MRP software was intended to support the purchase of raw materials for manufacturing needs. The purpose of MRP II was to integrate manufacturing, engineering, marketing, and finance units to run on the same information system and to use a single database for these functions. As MRP and MRP II systems were becoming popular in large ...